Vital PPE may have been delayed on way to NHS Covid-19 frontline by ‘chaos’ at warehouse containing £400m of kit that was hit by fire and treated for asbestos
- Drivers raise questions over Movianto’s ability to manage deliveries of PPE
- ‘It became more chaotic as time went on,’ says former policeman Asif Hussain
- British Army was brought in to help shift essential equipment in March
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Vital equipment to protect NHS workers could have been delayed from getting to the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic due to the ‘chaos’ at a warehouse where it was stored, a delivery driver has claimed.
Movianto, the firm contracted to store and deliver the government’s stockpile of PPE, has been criticised by staff in a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News.
Former policeman Asif Hussain worked as a delivery driver at the site in March. He said: ‘It became more chaotic as time went on.’
Asif Hussain worked at the Merseyside warehouse as a delivery driver in March, he described workflow as ‘chaotic’
Workers claim aisles were blocked for ‘months’ at the old Movianto warehouse, which was used to store the government’s PPE stockpile
The investigation also revealed the private company previously stored the equipment in a smoke damaged warehouse that contained asbestos. It was later moved to a purpose-built building in Merseyside.
Mr Hussain added: ‘Vans weren’t loaded, so you’d wait around for several hours for the vans to be loaded and sometimes they’d give you the wrong equipment to deliver to the hospitals.’
Claims from delivery drivers say aisles in the warehouse were blocked for months, while there was also criticism over a lack of security and overnight workers.
In March the British army was sent in to help organise and distribute PPE to hospitals around the country.
In 2018 Movianto was awarded a £10.5million-a-year contract to store 50,000 pallets of PPE, thought to be worth around £400mn, according to ITV News.
In December of that year, a generator powering the building caught fire and smoke billowed against the side of the building. Movianto says no smoke entered the warehouse.
Movianto told investigators the army’s involvement was not due to a dip in performance and said the company had carried out its contracted plan once the pandemic arrived in Britain.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the stockpile was ready to be deployed since the start of the pandemic and any claims to the contrary were false, adding it had always been stored safely and securely.
PPE shortages have been a main talking point throughout the pandemic.
The British Army was deployed to help deliver medical masks and other protective equipment to hospitals around the country, including St Thomas’ Hospital in London (above) where PM Boris Johnson was treated for Covid-19
In April, healthcare bosses running out of personal protective equipment (PPE) begged businesses for boiler suits and painter’s overalls.
The shortage of gowns, masks and gloves in Devon’s NHS clinical commissioning group (CCG) had been so severe, that a local council put out a tender for the ‘immediate supply’ of the items.
In a document titled ‘Urgent help needed re provision of PPE for NHS staff’, Torbay Council said the local CCG was ‘in desperate need of gowns’.
Last month the Government changed regulations around PPE material, so that for a ‘limited period’, coronavirus-related PPE does not have to bear the usual CE mark which means it meets product standards for the European Economic Area.